Traditional owners 'united' behind nuclear dump

Members of an Aboriginal clan in the Northern Territory who have offered their land for a nuclear waste facility say they are united in their support for the dump.

Ngapa elder Amy Lauder today met the federal Resources Minister, Martin Ferguson, in Darwin and said that all members of her clan are in support of a dump on their land at Muckaty Station, north of Tennant Creek.

Other Aboriginal people from the area who are opposed to the waste facility will go to a public meeting in Tennant Creek tonight.

But Ms Lauder says those people are not the traditional owners of the site.

"We're united, we've always been united," she said.

"We've always been united as a clan, as a family, for Muckaty."

The Northern Territory Government's attempts to stop the Commonwealth from setting up the dump at Muckaty Station have failed to sway Mr Ferguson.

The Territory Government says a dump site should be chosen purely on scientific merit, which it says is a site in South Australia.

He says he has listened to the argument, but because Muckaty Station is still the only place traditional owners have volunteered it remains the only site for consideration.

"The process I have established does not impose a site," Mr Ferguson said.

"Remember that it is a voluntary process ... the only site that is nominated to me that I have legal obligation to consider at the moment has been nominated by the Ngapa."

The Chief Minister, Paul Henderson, says he will continue to push for the site to be set-up somewhere else.

"Martin has got responsibilities as a Commonwealth minister and I respect that but certainly I believe that this should be dictated by science," he said

"There was extensive research done between 1992 and 2004 to identify any number of sites around Australia, none of which were in the Northern Territory."